Overhead line-conductor tap



Ott. 1,1940. FV F. FQWLE 2,216,705

OVERHEAD LINE-CONDUCTOR TAP Filed April 29, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet l Eff 1N VENT OR. /D/r/mf ifa/1&5,

ATTORNEYS.

0a. 11, 1940. F. F. FowL 2,216,705

OVERHEAD LINE-CONDUCTOR TAP Filed April 29, 19:68 5 sheets-sheet 2 I 7M* A A ATTORNEYS- Oct. l, 1940. F. F. FQWLE 2,216,705

OVERHEAD LINE-CONDUCTOR TAP Filed April 29, 1938 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR. /P/y/ wf/c. /Zy/ E,

ATTORNELS.

Patented Oct. 1, 1940 UNITED STATES OVERHEAD LINE-CONDUCTOR 'raie` Frank F. Fowle, Winnetka, Ill., assignor to Indiana Steel & Wire Company, Muncie, Ind., a corporation of Indiana Application April 29, 1938, Serial No. 205,060

6 Claims.

It is the object of `my invention to provide for a conductor of an overhead electric transmission line an overhead-line tap which imposes substantially no anchoring effect or restraint of movement on the conductor that would interfere with its free vibration or swaying andy that would thereby tend to cause local concentration of stresses and resultant tendency to fatigue failure.

By the term overhead electric transmission line I mean anoverhead line which has a series of conductor-spans under tension and which may be required to carry electric current; and by by the term conductor I include any conductor which may be required to serve as a currentcarrier for an electrical system, and so not only the conductors of a transmission circuit proper but also various ancillary conductors, such as ground wires, shield wires, messenger cables, catenary supports, etc., which may be primarily for other than conducting purposes and/or may actually serve to conduct current only occasionally.

An overhead electric transmission line is of necessity supported at intervals, with spans between. At the points of support, it is customary to provide fastening devices for attaching the conductors to the supporting structures. Sometimes these fastening devices are ties which have portions that are wrapped around the conductors and extend for greater or less distance away from the actual point of support along the conductor on one or both sides thereof, as is shown in my co-pending application Serial No. 205,059, filed concurrently herewith.

It is frequently necessary to provide taps from such overhead conductors, as for connecting a branch conductor and a main conductor. This is usually done in the neighborhood of a point of support of the conductor, by a clamp which attaches the line-conductor and the tap-conductor together. The clamp is usually spaced a slight distance away from the point of support; the distance depending upon the nature of the fastening device, and sometimes being as much as a foot or even more, especially when the fastening device is a tie which extends along the conductor for a substantial distance, so that the clamp will be beyond the end of the tie-wire.

Examples of such taps are for connecting main conductors to ground wires, to branch conductors that extend at an angle away from the main line, to primary leads to a transformer, to leads to lightning arresters, and others.

In previous constructions, the tap-conductor extending from the clamp commonly has been (Cif 174-43) installed not'only in a haphazard manner but in a manner which tends to anchor and restrain the free movement of the conductor at the point where the clamp is located. Since a span of conductor inevitably is subject to swaying and vibration, any such anchoring or restraint of movement at such clamp tends to produce localization of stresses in the conductor at or very near that clamp, and as a result of that localization of stresses a tendency is created to cause fatigue failure of the conductor at the point of such localization. Many breakages of overhead line conductors, and also of tap conductors, have been caused as a result of this.

By my invention, I substantially eliminate such anchoring and restraint of movement, and thus substantially eliminate the localization of stresses and the resultant breakages which such localization of stresses tends to cause.

In doing this, I do away with the haphazard extension of the tap-conductor from the clamp attaching it to the line-conductor. Instead, the tap-conductor is supported only at its two ends, one of which is in the clamp, and between those supported ends has at least two main portionsrst, a portion close to the clamp and extending in general parallelism with the line-conductor toward the line-conductor support, or even to or beyondA it; and, second, a portion extending at a substantial angle, desirably a wide angle which l preferably approaches or even reaches a right angle, from that end of the first portion which is remote from the clamp. By having a tap of this nature, the clamp is free to move as required by the vibration and swaying of the line-conductor with substantially no restraint from the tapconductor.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention. In such drawings:` Fig. 1 is an elevation of the upper part of a pole carrying the two. line-conductors of a single-phase primary distribution line, one of said line-conductors being grounded, and a transformer the primary winding of which is supplied by tap-conductors from the two line-conductors, the line-conductors bel ing perpendicular to the plane of the View; Fig. 2 is an elevation of the same structure shown in Fig. 1, as viewed from the side of the line; Fig. 2a is a top plan View of the structure shown in Figs. l and 2, with the tap connections purposely shown somewhat heavier than the line-co-nductors for clarity of illustration; Fig. 3 is an elevation of the upper part of a pole carrying a main line-conductor which is perpendicular to the plane of the View, and a branch line-conductor extending from the pole parallel to the plane of the view; Fig. 4 is a plan of the structure shown in Fig. 3; and Figs. 5 and 6 are views generally similar to Figs. 3 and 4, but with a jumper which is a tap-conductor for both the main-line conductor and the branch-line conductor.

In the structure shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 2a, the pole I has at the top a ridge-pin supporting an insulator I2, which carries a conductor |3 attached to it by a tie I4; which tie is advantageously of the type shown in my aforesaid copending application Serial No. 205,059, and includes an armor wrapping which has a closewound portion around the conductor proper through the support and for some distance beyond the support on both sides, with open-wound portions beyond each end of said close-wound portion. The pole ID also has mounted on it, at a slight distance below its top, a metal bracket I5 in which is mounted a second conductor I6, which is attached to it by a tie II; also advantageously of the type shown in my aforesaid copending application Serial No. 205,059, and including an armor wrapping which has a closewound portion around the conductor proper through the support and for some distance beyond the support on both sides, with open-wound portions beyond each end of said close-wound portion. The two ties I4 and II extend along their respective conductors I3 and I6 for a considerable distance on each side of the conductorsupports I2 and I5.

The two conductors I3 and I 6 constitute the two line-conductors oi a single-phase primary istribution circuit, and they supply by tapconductors 2U and 2| the primary winding of a transformer I8 which is also suitably mounted on the pole EB-as shown, at an intermediate height between the conductors I3 and I6.

The tap connections from the line-conductors I3 and I6 to the primary terminals of the transformer I8 are made in accordance with my invention, and exemplify that invention. To this end, each of the line-conductors I3 and I6 is provided with a clamp I9 mounted on the lineconductor beyond the end of the tie-wire wrapping. The clamp I9 in each instance clamps the free end of a tap-conductor, or 2| respectively, to the line-conductor I3 or I6. Each tap-conductor 20 and 2| rst extends a very short distance obliquely from the clamp I9 to obtain a slight spacing from the line-conductor I3 or I6. Then it extends substantially parallel with the line-conductor to and slightly beyond the associated line-conductor support (the insulator I2 or the bracket |5 as the case may be); to form the first main portion of the tap-conductor. In the plan View which constitutes Fig. 2a this first main portion of each tap-conductor 2 or 2| is shown at a very slight angle to the associated line-conductor, primarily for purposes of clarity, to prevent superposition of one wire over the other' in the drawings, but also because exact mathematical parallelism is not essential. At a point in the neighborhood 01"' and desirably slightly beyond such line-conductor support, the tapconductor 20 or 2| is bent, in an unsupported curve, into its second main portion, which is substantially perpendicular to both the first main portion anfl the associated line-conductor I3 or I6. The tap-conductor 20 from the line-conductor i3 is so bent to extend downward to a rigid support in a high-voltage primary bushing 22 oi the transformer I8, and the tap-conductor 2| from the line-conductor I6 is so bent to extend upward to a rigid support on a low-voltage primary bushing 23 of such transformer I8. A ground wire 24 that extends downward along the pole I0 to a suitable earth connection has its upper end attached, as by a clamp 25, to the vertically extending part of the tap-conductor 2|, so that it imposes minimum restraint on such tap-conductor; and the upper portion of that ground wire 24 is free from the pole I!) for a considerable distance below the clamp 25.

By reason of these constructions, the lineconductors I3 and |6 are substantially free to sway and to vibrate in a normal manner without substantial interference from the attachment of the tap-conductors. That is because in such swaying and vibration, the clamps I9 may move with substantial freedom both sidewise and vertically as required by such swaying and vibration, by reason of the ease of movement of all the parts of the tap-conductor relative to each other, to the line-conductor, and to the attaching point on the pole I0; for by reason of the lengths of the tap-conductor parts which are respectively parallel to and perpendicular to the line-conductor, and the curves connecting the several parts of the tap-conductor, the force required lto get the necessary relative movements of those tap-conductor parts is negligible.

In the construction shown in Figs. 3 and 4, a pole 30 carries a ridge pin 3| which at its upper end is provided with an insulator 32, in which is mounted a main line-conductor 33. The main line-conductor is attached to the insulator 32 by a tie 34 which has portions that are wrapped around said line-conductor and portions that extend for a substantial distance along such lineconductor on each side of the insulator 32, in the manner set forth in my co-pending application Serial No. 205,059. Beyond one end of the tie 34 is a clamp 35, in which is mounted the free end of a tap-conductor 36. From the clamp 35, the tap-conductor 36 rst extends obliquely upward for a very short distance in much the same manner as do the tap-conductors 20 and 2| from the conductors |3 and I6 of Fig. 2. Then it extends approximately parallel (for the Very slight obliqueness shown in plan in Fig. 4 is substantial parallelism) across but slightly above the insulator 32 to the far side of such insulator from the clamp 35. 'I'hen the tap-conductor 36 is bent, in a free unsupported curve in an approximately horizontal plane, and extends from such curve in a substantially horizontal plane and perpendcularly away from the line-conductor 33. In this particular embodiment of my invention, the tap-conductor is then bent in a second unsupported curve, this time in a substantially vertical plane, from which second curve the tap-conductor extends substantially vertically downward to a strain clamp 31 supported from the pole 30 through a suspension insulator 38. The tap-conductor 36 passes through the strain clamp 3'I, and, as the line-conductor 39 of a branch line, extends horizontally therefrom, to any desired point.

By reason of this arrangement of the tapconductor 36 between the tap-clamp 35 and the strain clamp 3T, the tap-conductor offers substantially no interference to the free movement of the clamp 35 as produced by the swaying and the vibration of the main linesconductor 33.

In the construction shown in Figs, 5 and 6, the pole 30, the ridge pin 3|, the insulator 32, the main line-conductor 33, the tie 34, the tap-clamp 35, the strain clamp 3'I, the suspension insulator 38, and the branch line-conductor 39 are the same as in the construction shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The tap-conductor 40, however, is different in detail from the tap-conductor 36 shown in Figs. 3 and 4, chieiiy in that instead of being a continuous extension through the strain clamp 31 of the branch line-conductor 39 it is a conductor which is separate from that branch line-conductor but attached thereto by a tap-clamp 4I. Thus the tap-conductor 40 is a jumper, attached to the main line-conductor 33 by one tap-clamp 35, and to the branch line-conductor 39 by another tap-clamp 4l. The tap-conductor 40 starts from the tap-clamp 35 on the main line-conductor 33 in much the same manner as has been described in connection with the arrangement of Figs. 3 and 4; for it rst extends obliquely upward for a very short distance from the tapclamp 35, then extends substantially parallel across but slightly above the insulator 32, and then is bent in a free unsupported curve in an approximately horizontal plane into a portion which extends from such curve substantially horizontally and perpendicularly away from the line-conductor 33. From the outer end of this last-named portion, the tap-conductor (or jumper in this case) extends obliquely downward away from the pole 30 toward the branch line-conductor 39, as is clear from Fig. 5, and then extends substantially horizontally and substantially parallel to the branch line-conductor 39 to a point (in this modification) slightly beyond the tapclamp 4I, where it is bent downward through an angle of substantially 180 into a portion which extends backward toward the pole 30 through the tap-clamp 4|, by which it is attached to the branch line-conductor 39. In the arrangement shown in Figs. 5 and 6, therefore, there are two embodiments of my invention in the tap-conductor or jumper 40; for from each of the tapclamps 35 and 4I there is a portion which extends substantially parallel to the immediately adjacent line-conductor toward the pole 30, at the remote end of which portion there is a second portion which extends at a wide angle.

I claim as my invention:

l. In an overhead line-conductor tap, the combination with an overhead line-conductor mounted on spaced supports to provide open spans, of a tap-conductor which is supported at two points and is unsupported between those two points, one of said two points being a connection to said lineconductor at a point in the neighborhood of but considerably spaced away from one of the lineconductor supports; said tap-conductor between said two supporting points including at least two main portions, of whichr main portions one is a portion starting close to the point of attachment to the line-conductor and extending a considerable distance in general parallelism with and close to the line-conductor between that point of attachment and the line-conductor support, and the other of which main portions is a portion extending a considerable distance at a substantial angle from that end of the first portion which is remote from the point of attachment to the lineconductor.

2. In an overhead line-conductor tap, the combination with an overhead line-conductor mounted on spaced supports to provide open spans, of a tap-conductor which is supported at two points and is unsupported between those two points, one of said two points being a connection to said line-conductor at a point in the neighborhood of but considerably spaced away from one of the line-conductor supports; said tapconductor between said two supporting points including at least two main portions, of which main portions one is a portion starting close to the point of attachment to the line-conductor and extending a considerable distance in general parallelism with and close to but slightly spaced from the line-conductor between that point of attachment and the line-conductor support, and the other of which main portions is a portion extending a considerable distance at a substantial angle from that end of the first portion which is remote from the point of attachment to the line-conductor. n 3. In an overhead line-conductor tap, the cornhead line-conductor to its supports and which extend outward along the line-conductor from said supports, and that the point of attachment of the tap-conductor to the line-conductor is slightly beyond the end of one of said ties,

6. In an overhead line-conductor tap, the ccmbination as set forth in claim 1, with the addition that there are ties which fasten said overhead-line conductor to its support and extend outward along the line-conductor from said support, and which include a. close-wound wrapping portion on the line-conductor through the support and for some distance on both sides thereof and an open-wound portion beyond an end of said close-wound portion, and that the point of attachment of the tap-conductor to the line-conductor is slightly beyond the end of that openwound portion of the tie. 

